Justice seeks $1 million a day
contempt fine against
Microsoft
October 20, 1997
Web posted at: 1:24 p.m. EDT (1724 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice
Department asked a federal court Monday
to hold the computer software giant
Microsoft Corp. in contempt for requiring
personal computer manufacturers to
license and distribute its Internet browser.
The department said the company violated a 1995 court order the
government obtained to bar the company from anticompetitive
licensing practices. The government sought a $1 million a day fine.
"Microsoft is unlawfully taking advantage of its Windows
monopoly to protect and extend that monopoly," Attorney General
Janet Reno told reporters.
"This is a very serious abuse," said Assistant Attorney General Joel
I. Klein, head of the antitrust division. He said Microsoft's action
was designed to undermine the dominant market position of its
major competitor for Internet browsers, Netscape.
Internet browsers are important, Klein said, because they "could
erode Microsoft's operating system monopoly" in the Windows
operating system. "This kind of product forcing is an abuse of
monopoly power and we seek to put an end to it."
Klein emphasized that the Justice Department is still investigating
other practices by Microsoft but declined to give details.
The Justice Department objected to Microsoft's requirement that
computer manufacturers who want to license the Windows 95
operating system also license its internet browser, known as
Internet Explorer. Most personal computer makers install
Windows 95 at the factory.
Klein said, "These are two different products." He said they should
be sold as two separate products, but he adamantly said the
government was not taking sides in the war for browser market
share between Microsoft and Netscape, whose browser is known
as Navigator, or any other company.
"Each of Microsoft's products should compete on its own merits,"
Klein said.
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